Patients with a common heart arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation (AF) may be able to assess their risk of cardiovascular events over the next five years with a single blood test, a new study finds. .

A new study published in the journal Cardiovascular Research and presented at the Frontiers in CardioVascular BIology Congress 2024 conference in Amsterdam shows that blood-based biomolecular tests alone can assess the risk of cardiovascular events over the next five years. Suggests.

A study of 1,586 AF patients found that a population of high-risk patients who recorded elevated levels of 13 biomolecules had five times as many cardiovascular events as low-risk patients.

Professor Larissa Fabritz, Professor of Cardiology at the Cardiovascular Center of the University of Hamburg, Hamburg-Eppendorf University Medical Center and Emeritus Professor at the University of Birmingham, said:

“These validated findings may help predict the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with atrial fibrillation using a single blood test and help differentiate the care most needed. Through further validation studies carried out in Birmingham, we are confident that blood tests can provide a useful understanding of those most in need of intervention to avoid stroke, acute heart failure and death.”

Biomarker profile

An international team has developed a profile of 13 specific biomarkers used to differentiate risk for atrial fibrillation. They used samples from AF patients to analyze potentially targetable biomarkers, and through testing and validation in the Birmingham BBC-AF Registry, they found that combinations of elevated biomarkers were associated with patient risk variation. I found a match.

The study results are from a subset of the EAST – AFNET 4 (Early Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation to Prevent Stroke) trial, which found that early rhythm control with antiarrhythmic drugs or atrial fibrillation ablation improved the diagnosis of AF in 2789 It has been demonstrated that outcomes are improved when performed within 1 year after treatment. Patients with early AF and cardiovascular risk factors were compared with usual care (UC) over a 5-year follow-up period.

Paulus Kirchhoff, principal investigator of EAST – AFNET 4 and author of the paper, said:

“We were fortunate to be able to accurately quantify 13 biomolecules associated with various disease processes in the EAST – AFNET 4 biomolecule study. Clustering techniques that capture interactions between biomolecules can be used to quantify biomolecule concentrations. was applied to identify patients at risk for cardiovascular events based on

“This identified four AF subphenotypes with distinct biomolecular profiles and risk of complications. Our results provide insight into the drivers of AF-related complications in patients.”